Traveling tributes will visit

Posted: Saturday, May 21, 2011

By Merritt Melancon

Replicas of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall and a tribute to post-Vietnam veterans will visit towns across North Georgia this weekend and next.

Today and Sunday, the city of Auburn will host the American Veterans Traveling Tribute and Traveling Wall - a scale replica of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. - at R.H. Burel Park to commemorate Armed Forces Day.

Armed Forces Day, which is celebrated today, is designed as a single day for people to thank servicemen and women for their service. It replaced separate Army, Navy, Marine Corps and Air Force days in 1949.

Auburn also is marking the day with a Defenders of Freedom motorcycle ride at 10 a.m., a parade at 10:15 a.m. and a memorial presentation to the families of two Winder-area Marines who were killed in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan at 1 p.m.

"We started out just wanting to do our motorcycle ride, which would have been our second annual Defenders of Freedom ride," said Ron Dillon, first vice commander of AMVETS Post 12 in Winder. "And then all of a sudden, it just went wild. Auburn jumped and said, 'Let's make this a really good day, not just one motorcycle ride.' "

The AMVETS started organizing their benefit ride last year to raise money to build a veterans' memorial in Auburn and to raise money for a program to give local veterans a getaway weekend at Fort Yargo State Park, Dillon said.

A similar tribute - the "Some Gave All" traveling memorial, which includes the names of Americans killed in Iraq, Afghanistan, the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, Desert Storm and in Beirut - will be on display next weekend in honor of Memorial Day at Madison County's LZ Friendly Campout and Reunion.

"It was done for everyone from 1975 forward," said Bosie Griffith, a spokesman for LZ Friendly, which was organized to honor Vietnam-era veterans. "We brought it up here last year but it rained on and off, and we didn't get as much as a turnout as we could."

This marks the 26th year that LZ Friendly has held a reunion at its campground on Johnny McElroy Road.

This year, members would like to encourage more veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan to join the campout. They'd also like to see more police and firefighters at the event, Griffith said.

Another Vietnam memorial, the Dignity Memorial Vietnam Wall, will be on display next weekend at Wyomia Tyus Olympic Park in Griffin.